EP 0 778 203 B1 discloses a device for forming groups of individual products, of a type which could also be used for producing multipacks. For this purpose, a compartmentalized conveyor belt is used, which comprises a row of compartments that extends in the transport direction and serves to accommodate individual packages. The compartmentalized conveyor belt comprises a toothed belt as well as drivers mounted on the latter at a fixed distance from one another and forming compartments. The respective compartments formed thus on the compartmentalized conveyor belt are precisely adjusted to the product dimensions of each individual product.
The above is disadvantageous insofar as the compartmentalized conveyor belt is only suitable for producing multipacks consisting of individual products with a dimensionally stable content, e.g. for producing multipacks of dimensionally stable sweets, in particular individual cookie products. In this case, the individual products themselves, which are disposed one on top of the other in the compartmentalized conveyor belt, can, due to their dimensionally stable content, provide a surface which is sufficiently stable and uniform as a counter bearing for applying a label thereto. This kind of labeling can, however, not be carried out by means of the compartmentalized conveyor belt when the products in question have a dimensionally unstable content, since, when loosely contained in the respective compartments of the compartmentalized conveyor belt, such products do not define a surface suitable as a counter bearing for affixing a label thereto. Hence, pressing the label against this kind of products would have the effect that the latter would be pushed away or compressed. As a consequence, the label cannot be affixed precisely.